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DENISA KRASNA or extent,? existed in North America prior to the European arrival, nevertheless, most pre-colonial boundaries were not meant to be final, exclusive, and irretrievably fixed in space and time. On the contrary, boundaries that separated tribes, nations and even clans or sacred places were fluid, natural, and established by those who were directly divided and affected by them." European colonizers imported a diametrically different conception of borders that rendered them permanent and impassable. Ihis paper will show that borders gradually became a tool of further colonization and oppression of Indigenous peoples. While pre-colonial boundaries served mainly a practical organizational purpose and were rarely enforced, European borders have always acted as a barrier marking difference that is often emphasized and consolidated by an actual physical barrier — be it a fence, a wall, or a patrol agency. In 1783, Great Britain and the newly formed United States signed the Treaty of Paris that established what is now the US-Canadian border. As neither party consulted any of the Indigenous nations whose lands were cut in half, Indigenous peoples raised their voices to protest this “infringement on their sovereign rights.”° In response, the Jay Treaty of 1794 guaranteed the right of free passage Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada and this right was later reaffirmed by the Treaty of Ghent in 1815. To survey the new border, the Jay Treaty also authorized a special Boundary Commission, whose task was complicated and eventually made impossible by the natural terrain, leading to a compromise in 1818 that set the unexplored western part of the boundary along the 49" parallel. Yet again, another historical decision was made remotely without the knowledge of the peoples inhabiting the artificial borderlands. Similarly, the 1500-mile border between Alaska and Canada was negotiated without the consent of Indigenous nations whose territories straddle directly across the boundary. While the free cross-border passage rights granted by the Jay Treaty were respected at first, intensified border security and discriminatory policies of the last two centuries have made their assertion substantially harder for Indigenous peoples of both countries. Moreover, US and Canada vary in their respective interpretations of these treaties and by misconstruing their contents further perpetuate systemic racism against Indigenous peoples who are often subjected to border discrimination involving heavy scrutiny, physical searches by disrespectful border patrol agents, desanctification of religious regalia, and other interventions. Passport requirement also further breaches Indigenous treaty rights, contradicts fundamental Indigenous cultural beliefs, 3 “Boundary,” Merriam Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ boundary (accessed 4 April 2020). Starks — McCormack — Cornell, Native Nations, 19. 5 Greg Boos — Greg McLawsen — Heather Fathali, Canadian Indians, Inuit, Metis, and Metis: An Exploration of the Unparalleled Rights Enjoyed by American Indians Born in Canada to Freely Access the United States, Seattle Journal of Environmental Law, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2014), 346. 4 + 268 *
